Cousin Kate

by Georgette Heyer

  ‘Tomorrow,’ Philip replied.

  ‘I tell you, I’m not tired!’

  ‘You may not be tired, but I am! What’s the time, doctor?’

  The doctor, pulling out his watch, announced that it was nearly half-past five, at which Kate sprang up, exclaiming: ‘As late as that? We shall be late for dinner! For heaven’s sake, don’t start another game!’

  ‘Oh, what the devil does it signify? Mama ain’t coming down!’

  ‘No, but your father means to dine with us, and it won’t do to keep him waiting,’ said Philip imperturbably. ‘Furthermore, I have already had one brush with Gaston, and, I warn you, Torquil, if his sensibilities are wounded again, you shall have the task of applying balm!’

  ‘Gaston? What are you talking about?’ asked Torquil impatiently.

  ‘It’s my belief,’ said Philip, eyeing him severely, ‘that you knew all about it, and took care to be well out of the way! See if I don’t give you your own again, that’s all!’

  ‘But I didn’t!’ protested Torquil, diverted. ‘I swear I don’t know what you’re talking about! I believe you’re hoaxing me!’

  He was still hovering on the brink of fury, but his curiosity had been roused, and by the time Philip had regaled him with a highly coloured description of his encounter with the chef, he was laughing again, and had forgotten his determination to play another game of quoits.

  He was strumming on the pianoforte at the far end of the Long Drawing-room when Kate next saw him, twenty minutes later, and paid no heed to her. She thought he looked tired, and dispirited, and so, apparently, did Dr Delabole, who was watching him covertly when Kate came into the room, an anxious frown on his forehead. It vanished when he became aware of her entrance, and he got up bowing, and smiling, and handing her to a chair, with the slightly overdone civility which characterized him. Torquil stumbled over a passage, and brought his hands down in a crashing discord, ejaculating savagely: ‘Fool, fool, cowhanded fool! I shall never be first-rate, never!’

  He jumped up from the pianoforte, slamming down the lid, and coming with hasty, impetuous strides down the room, just as Sir Timothy entered, leaning on Philip’s arm. For a nerve-racking moment Kate feared that he was going to brush past his father, and fling himself out of the room, but either his cousin’s presence, or Sir Timothy’s gentle voice, bidding him good-evening, made him stop in his tracks. He responded awkwardly: ‘Oh – good-evening, sir!’ and, after standing undecidedly beside a chair in the middle of the room, sat down, but took no part in the general conversation. This did not augur well for the comfort of the evening, but his temper gradually improved, and he ate what was, for him, a very good dinner. By the time Kate left the dining-room, he had made three spontaneous remarks, and had allowed himself to be drawn into a sporting discussion.

  As she walked up the Grand Staircase, Kate wondered how to keep him diverted, and decided that the best plan might be to set out the Fox and Geese. This had amused him on a previous occasion, and might do so again. On the other hand, he might despise it as a child’s game: one never knew with him how long a craze would last. Everything depended on his mood, and tonight this seemed to be uncertain.

  But when he came in he was smiling at something Philip seemed to have said to him, and as soon as he saw the Fox and Geese board, exclaimed: ‘Oh, I’d forgotten that! Look, Philip, do you remember?’

  Philip waited until Sir Timothy had lowered himself into his accustomed chair before turning his head towards Torquil. ‘Look at what? – Good God! You don’t mean to tell me those are the pieces I once made?’ he exclaimed incredulously. He walked over to the table, and laughed, picking up one of the lop-sided geese. ‘Ham handed, wasn’t I? How in the world have they survived? Do you still play?’

  ‘Oh, no, not for years, until I played with Kate, three or four evenings ago! I thought they had been lost, but she found them at the back of the cabinet over there, and we had a famous battle! I beat her all hollow, and she swore revenge on me. Are you ready to begin, coz?’

  ‘Do say you don’t wish to play, Kate!’ begged Philip. ‘I am persuaded you would liefer talk to my uncle! I shall then offer, very good-naturedly, to play as your deputy. Lord, how it takes me back! I wonder if I remember the rules?’

  He sat down as he spoke, and began to set out the seventeen geese. Torquil, who had been inclined to resent his intervention, at once became enthusiastic, and Sir Timothy made an inviting gesture towards a chair near his own.

  She had purposely set out the fox and geese on a table towards the other end of the room, and although it was not out of tongue-shot, a low-voiced conversation could be maintained which would neither disturb the players nor be overheard by them. Nevertheless, Kate moved her chair rather closer to Sir Timothy’s, saying, as she sat down: ‘Philip was right, sir: I have been anxious to talk to you ever since – ever since I knew that he does indeed wish to marry me!’

  ‘But were you in doubt? He must have expressed himself very badly!’ said Sir Timothy.

  She laughed, blushing a little. ‘No, but – I wasn’t expecting him to make me an offer, and I was afraid he might regret it. After all, it is only a week since we first met!’

  ‘Are you afraid you might regret it?’ he asked, still amused.

  ‘Oh, no, no!’

  ‘Then why should he? He is not at all volatile, you know!’ He held out his thin hand, and as she shyly laid her own in it, said softly: ‘I think you will suit very well, my dear. I’m glad to know that you are going to be happy. I feel sure you will be, both of you.’

  ‘Thank you, sir!’ she whispered, fervently squeezing his hand. ‘As long as you don’t dislike it – !’

  ‘There’s only one thing I dislike about it, and that is that I must lose you. You brought the sunshine to Staplewood, my child! And I fear that when you leave I shan’t see you again. Your aunt won’t make you welcome. It is not I, but she, who will dislike your marriage to Philip. You know that, don’t you?’ She nodded, and he continued, sighing faintly: ‘Philip tells me that you mean to break the news to her yourself. You would oblige me very much, Kate, if you won’t do so while she is still so unwell. She is all unused to having her will crossed, and I am afraid it will upset her very much.’

  She replied immediately: ‘You may be easy on that head, sir: I will do nothing to upset her until she is better. What does Dr Delabole say of her?’

  ‘He went up to see her when we left the dining-room, and has promised to report to me how she goes on. I daresay he will soon be with us, so I will say only one thing more to you, my dear! Whatever your aunt may say to you, let Philip be the judge of what is best for you to do – and be sure that you both take my blessing with you!’

  Seventeen

  Kate had no opportunity that evening to exchange more than a few whispered words with Philip as she slid her letter to Sarah into his hand, for although Sir Timothy went away to bed, escorted by Dr Delabole, before the tea-tray was brought in, Torquil remained, and it was not many minutes before the doctor returned. This had the effect of making Torquil invite Kate to walk down to the bridge with him, to see the moonlight on the lake. The arrival of the first footman, carrying in the tea-tray, provided her with an excuse; she added that she was rather tired, trusting to Philip to divert his wayward mind. This he did by proposing a game of billiards, but not before Torquil had announced his intention of going down to the lake by himself.

  Kate was thus left to sustain the burden of Dr Delabole’s conversation, which was largely concerned with Lady Broome’s state of health, but interspersed with anecdotes, of which he seemed to have an inexhaustible fund. It struck her that under his cheerful manner he was concealing anxiety, but when she asked him if he thought Lady Broome’s condition more serious than he had divulged to Sir Timothy, he quickly denied it, assuring her that her aunt was on the mend. ‘It was a severe attack, though soo
n over, and it has pulled her – there’s no denying that, as I told her, when she was determined to get up. She bit my nose off, but that’s a sign of convalescence, you know!’ He chuckled reminiscently. ‘How it did take me back! I daresay you would find it hard to believe that she could ever have had a temper, but I promise you she had! Oh, dear me, yes! Quite a violent one! I have been acquainted with her since she was twelve years old – watched her grow up, you might say. Ay, and watched her bridle her temper, until she had it under such strict control that I had almost forgotten how passionate she was used to be until she flew at me for saying she must remain in bed! That brought the old days back to me! Not that I mean to say that it was more than a spurt of temper, but it put me on my guard!’

  ‘But didn’t you say that it was a sign she was on the mend?’ asked Kate, raising her brows.

  ‘Oh, yes, and so it is! Yesterday, when the fever was so high, she felt too ill to be cross, or obstinate: that caused me to feel considerable anxiety!’ He cast an arch look at Kate. ‘I fancy I have no need to tell you, Miss Malvern, that she is very, very strong-willed! Once she is determined on a course, it is a hard task to turn her from it! I should have preferred her to remain in bed for another day, but if she is of the same mind tomorrow I shan’t attempt to argue with her, for I know it would do more harm than good. She is suffering from considerable irritation of the nerves, and must be kept as calm as possible, if she is not to have a relapse into another attack of colic. That might indeed be serious!’

  He went on talking in this strain until the tea-tray was removed, and Kate felt she could excuse herself without incivility.

  She passed a peaceful night, and woke with a sensation of well-being. Only one fence remained to be jumped, and although it was likely to be a rasper she had no doubt of clearing it: Sir Timothy’s blessing had removed her scruples, and beyond that last obstacle a happy future awaited her.

  But she did wish that Lady Broome had not fallen ill at just this moment. To remain at Staplewood while her aunt was ignorant of her engagement to Mr Philip Broome did not suit her sense of propriety. She felt it to be double dealing, and was too honest to offer her conscience the sop of Sir Timothy’s request to her not to divulge her engagement until Lady Broome was sufficiently recovered to withstand what he plainly felt would be an unpleasant shock. Nor could she persuade herself that Lady Broome might not be so very angry after all: for the niece whom she had so generously befriended to fall in love with the man she most hated and mistrusted would be seen by her as an unpardonable piece of disloyalty – if she did not see it as treachery, which she was very likely to do, thought Kate ruefully, wishing that the ordeal were behind her. It had not needed Dr Delabole’s reference to Lady Broome’s girlish furies to convince her that under her iron calm Lady Broome concealed a temper, and she wondered, quaking a little, just how violent it would be if her aunt allowed it to overcome her, and what effect it might have upon her health. It would be a shocking thing to make her seriously ill: infinitely worse than to keep from her, when she was barely convalescent, news that would certainly upset her. Philip had said that she owed her aunt nothing, because it had been to serve her own ends that Lady Broome had been kind to her; but however selfish her motive had been, the fact remained that she had been kind, and had continued to be kind when Kate had told her that under no circumstances would she marry Torquil. She had certainly hoped that Kate would change her mind, but she had put no pressure on her. Her only unkindness had been to try to sever the link that tied her niece to Sarah Nidd. That had been unscrupulous, but Kate was inclined to believe that she had not supposed herself to be inflicting more than a passing sadness. It would be incomprehensible to Lady Broome, whose exaggerated notion of her own consequence Kate had long thought to be one of her least amiable faults, that her niece could hold her nurse in more than mild affection. If she had known that Kate actually loved Sarah, she would have deplored such a sad want of particularity, and might even have considered it a kindness to wean her from her predilection for what she herself called Low Company.

  Philip, of course, would say that she did not care a straw how much pain she inflicted when scheming to achieve her own ends; but Philip disliked her too much to do her justice. It was strange that so level-headed a man could be so deeply prejudiced. Kate could understand dislike, but not a prejudice so bitter that it led him to believe that her aunt, knowing Torquil to be mentally deranged, meant to entrap her into marrying him. That shocked her, for it seemed to be a discordant note in his nature, making him, for a disquieting moment, almost a stranger to her, an intolerant man, without pity or understanding. But she knew that he had both. His affection for his uncle had not blinded him to the weakness in Sir Timothy’s character, but he understood, far better than she did, the circumstances which had worn his uncle down, and would never, she knew, abate one jot of his sympathetic tenderness. He had said that though he could no longer respect Sir Timothy he could never cease to love him, and these were not the words of an intolerant man. The thought that he was kind only to those whom he held in affection occurred only to be dismissed. He did not hold Torquil in affection, but that he pitied him was shown in his treatment of him. A man who could let his prejudice govern him might have been expected to have extended his hatred of Lady Broome to her son, but this, plainly, Philip had never done. He must always, Kate thought, remembering Torquil’s joyful greeting when he had arrived at Staplewood a week ago, have been kind to Torquil, even when he was a schoolboy, and had probably wished a tiresome small boy at Jericho. Torquil had told her, in one of his melodramatic moods, that Philip had made three attempts to murder him. How much of that lurid tale had been due to a fantasy in his brain, and how much to his undeniable love of play-acting, she could not know, but she suspected that someone had put the idea into his head that his cousin was his enemy. It was not difficult to guess who had done it, for only one person at Staplewood had a motive for attempting to turn Torquil against Philip: Lady Broome, who hated Philip as much as he hated her, and made no secret of the fact that his visits were unwelcome. Philip believed that she was trying to keep him away because she feared that if he saw too much of Torquil he would discover what she knew to be the truth about him; to Kate’s mind, it went to prove that she did not know the truth. For Lady Broome to have sown poison in what she believed to be a sane mind was bad enough; to have done so, knowing that Torquil’s hold on sanity was precarious, and that when in the grip of mania he was homicidal, would have been unpardonable.

  It seemed to Kate, bearing in mind her aunt’s domineering disposition, that Lady Broome saw in Philip a threat to her absolute authority over Torquil; perhaps feared that he would support Torquil in his burning wish to break away from her rule. That he had given her no reason to suspect him of any such subversive ambition probably weighed with her not at all: he could not do right in her eyes.

  She said that she deprecated his influence: the truth was, Kate thought, that she was jealous of Torquil’s affection for his cousin, for what little influence Philip possessed over him was good; and bitterly resented Philip’s tacit refusal to allow her to reduce him to the position of a mere guest at Staplewood, dependent on formal invitations for his visits. He came when he chose: it could never be too often for Sir Timothy. Pennymore had told Kate that Sir Timothy became quite like his old self when Mr Philip was at Staplewood; and this, she guessed, was another cause of Lady Broome’s resentment. She could perceive how galling it must be for her aunt to see Sir Timothy’s eyes brighten when Philip came into the room; to know, as she surely must, that Philip was much dearer to him than was his son; and to be powerless to bring about an alienation between them. That, Kate thought, was at the root of the trouble: Lady Broome wanted always to be in command of every person at Staplewood, and of every situation that might arise; but she had not been able to command that situation. Nor had she been able to kill Torquil’s affection for Philip: he had only to come face to face with him to
see in him, not an enemy, but the indulgent big cousin of his childhood. And Philip she could not command at all, having neither power nor influence over him. He was quite civil to her, never seeking to interfere with her arrangements, but he went his own way, perfectly at home at Staplewood. This might have been expected to have made his visits more acceptable to her, for she was not obliged to entertain him, and he made no demands on her. In fact, it was an added offence: she called it ‘behaving as though Staplewood belonged to him’. Really, Kate thought, when it came to imputing evil there wasn’t a penny to choose between them: neither could see good in the other.

  Her reflections were interrupted at this point by the timid tap on the door which heralded Ellen’s entrance, and they were not resumed, Ellen bringing messages which banished all but domestic matters from her mind. The chef wished to know when it would be convenient to her to issue her orders for the day; and Mrs Thorne would be glad if she could spare a moment to have a word with her.

  Entering the breakfast-parlour half an hour later, she was surprised to find only Philip there, lingering over his coffee, and reading an article in the Monthly Magazine. He cast this aside when she came in, and got up, advancing towards her with his hands held out. ‘Good-morning, my sweet!’ he said lovingly. ‘I’ve been waiting for you.’ He possessed himself of her hands, and kissed them. ‘I wish you will tell me how you contrive to look more beautiful every time I see you?’

  She blushed, raising shyly smiling eyes to his face. ‘Oh, Philip, you – you palaverer! I don’t!’

  ‘But you do! I think myself pretty ill-used, I can tell you: very unkind of you, when you know I daren’t kiss you!’ He moved to the table, to pull her chair out. ‘Come and sit down!’ He pushed the chair in again as she did so, and dropped a kiss on the top of her head, at which precise moment Pennymore came in, bearing a tea-pot, and a dish of hot scones.